Energy Drinks: What Do They Really Do?

They’ve increased to become a larger part of American beverage business — presently $8.9 billion worth per year. Their corporate parents have also been subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General for not fully disclosing their ingredients or their health effects.

What’s Prompted the Investigation?

Deaths, widely reported in the media. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois wanted to know what role Monster Energy played in the sudden death of a teenager.

What’s Inside Energy Drinks?

Generally caffeine — plus usually sugar and a wide mix of amino acids, vitamins, “herbs” and other substances. Many of these additional ingredients include xanthine and other stimulants that don’t get added up to the “caffeine” line listed in the ingredients.

What Will the Investigators Look At?

The perpetual dividing line for regulations: whether the drinks are drugs or foods, and why emergency room visits for energy drinks have skyrocketed in the last few years.

In other words they’ll look at the health care effects of energy drinks before querying their full health effects. Adults certainly imbibe 5-Hour Energy, Monster, Red Bull and the like, but the major growth has been in kids.

In endless ways. Here are a few: 1. They take them to hide the sedating effects of alcohol. That’s why the FDA banned Four Loko — a combination of alchohol and caffeine. Now kids quickly make that combination themselves — vodka and energy drink is a popular, sometimes deadly duo. 2. Combine them willy-nilly with many other drugs — uppers, downers, bath salts. If something is “too sedating” you might add Monster to the mix. Here is a generation that routinely mixes pharmaceuticals in fashions pharmacologists, doctors, and chemists never imagined. 3. Use them to stay up — night and day. At night by playing video games, hanging out, doing school work. Many wake in the morning so sleep deprived and “tired” they must take them again to get to class — where they may need a further dose to stay awake.

What Are the Real Health Effects of These Drugs?

Manyfold, and mainly unstudied. Health is an information issue. The body takes in all the stimuli of the day and uses that information to reprogram its rapid rebuild. Normal regeneration is particularly critical during the teenage years when energy drugs are most popular, for teenagers quickly rebuild their brains — in new ways. Perhaps a third of synapses die in puberty, and brain reorganization is speedy. That’s probably one reason why teenagers require more hours of rest and sleep than adults.

What Information Do Energy Drinks Provide?

Information psychological, social, and physiologic. Several of the messages provided are misleading:

1. You don’t need that much sleep. Just take a quick “hit of energy” and you’re “good to go.

2. Athletic and mental performance flows from a can.

3. If you’re getting tired, just take more energy drinks — they’re safe. They’re packaged to look food, look like food, taste like food. Aren’t they just another kind of food?

What’s the Real Downside of Energy Drinks?

1. These drugs disrupt sleep. Take them at night and you won’t sleep well — which means you’ll need more of them during the day. Caffeinism — addiction to caffeine — is underdiagnosed and frequently nasty.

2. If you don’t get enough sleep and other forms of rest to properly regenerate a young, growing body, you don’t learn as well; can’t concentrate; have poorer long term memory; set yourself up for more colds; gain weight; won’t look as healthy or attractive as you should.

3. Drinks can lead to more drinks just as pills can lead to using more pills. Too buzzed on energy drinks? You can “come down” with alcohol or some of the nearly 400 “relaxation drinks.” Mix and match as you think you need.

The implied message from marketing these drugs is that there is a “safe," easily accessible drug for many of your needs. Parents worried about future drug addiction of their children, please take notice.

4. The individual and combined effects of the many ingredients of energy drinks have been minimally studied. We don’t know what they do.

Bottom Line:

Energy drinks, as I’ve argued before, should be labeled “anti-relaxation” drinks and recognized for what they are — drugs masquerading as food. If they have a use it’s more effectively served by downing a cup of coffee or tea, or even the direct ingestion of a caffeine pill.

And with coffee and tea you get a legally recognized food-drug which can help combat diabetes, Parkinsonism or perhaps even dementia — rather than an expensive chemical concoction in a cute aluminum can. We know what tea and coffee do to people.

We don’t know much about the long term effects of energy drinks — except for a few short, unsavory ones. And as many of us constantly relearn, what you don't know can hurt you.

I see young kids drink the extra large size energy drinks like soda or water almost daily!

The main culprit is the caffeine this is what is causing the deaths and medical issues. It's been know and highly studied.

Second the large amounts of sugar that is being consumed in the regular versions of these energy drinks, soda, coffee drinks, sweet tea is investing in your diabetic future! Get ready for some serious energy crashes, lows and jitters in your future, not to mention the insulin shots.

I think prominent Warning labels need to be printed on the cans / bottles that warn of the potential side effects. Most companies do post small print warnings but they are mostly ignored.

Yes Coffee and Tea do have benefits to health and diabetes but the benefits are outweighed by the risks when you add the copious amounts of sugar and milk products. Go to a coffee shop in the morning and see how many people only get black coffee. Just a very small percent. Some do go for the light (skinny) version which are healthier in some cases but the majority get the high calorie sugary tasty concoctions.

Coffee shops, coffee products and sodas need prominent warning labels / postings to explaining the risks of caffeine. Heck we should just ban them for our youth like cigarettes. Oh yea if they want to smoke they will, it doesn't seem to stop them even though they know its bad. But it has reduced the numbers of users and saved many lives.

I drink a single large cup of coffee in the morning I grind and brew myself and add a small amount of natural creamer for flavor and it also reduces the acidity. I can't drink it straight up. I do this for the caffeine kick and the know health benefits of the coffee. I also drink green tea brewed and cooled at least twice a day never after 5pm. This has been working for me mostly. I otherwise mostly drink water and sometimes brewed tea at restaurants.

I have tried different non-sugar energy drinks in the past and have one on rare occasions as a second caffeine/energy kick in the afternoon or after an extreme workout at gym or extra long run. After trying so many different ones and analyzing the ingredients and finding out what works best based on lots research I choose the Monster low-carb. No sugar and I like the taste when it super cold. My rule is only one of the smaller size a day max. It helps me focus and gives me a solid 5 hours of clean energy without a crash.

MODERATION is the key here as with anything! These are drugs that affect our bodies and we need to respect them and not overdo it. Take too much aspirin and you will die or mess up your digestive track for the rest of your life. Drink to much alcohol and you will die or get diabetes, blow out your liver and really screw up your body. (But a glass of red wine is good for you they say!).

It goes on and on. When we make uneducated and foolish choices we pay the consequences!

I choose to live a healthier life by making certain choices like exercising regularly, not really taking any type of medication or even pain killers unless my body really really really needs them. I avoid lots of sugars, sweets, white breads, soda and high sugar drinks. Some of my choices might seem extreme to others but to me after lots of research, trial and error they work and I am constantly tweaking them. I feel healthly, never get sick other than a rare sniffle, my average daily energy levels are most peoples highs.

I see young kids drink the extra large size energy drinks like soda or water almost daily!

The main culprit is the caffeine this is what is causing the deaths and medical issues. It's been know and highly studied.

Second the large amounts of sugar that is being consumed in the regular versions of these energy drinks, soda, coffee drinks, sweet tea is investing in your diabetic future! Get ready for some serious energy crashes, lows and jitters in your future, not to mention the insulin shots.

I think prominent Warning labels need to be printed on the cans / bottles that warn of the potential side effects. Most companies do post small print warnings but they are mostly ignored.

Yes Coffee and Tea do have benefits to health and diabetes but the benefits are outweighed by the risks when you add the copious amounts of sugar and milk products. Go to a coffee shop in the morning and see how many people only get black coffee. Just a very small percent. Some do go for the light (skinny) version which are healthier in some cases but the majority get the high calorie sugary tasty concoctions.

Coffee shops, coffee products and sodas need prominent warning labels / postings to explaining the risks of caffeine. Heck we should just ban them for our youth like cigarettes. Oh yea if they want to smoke they will, it doesn't seem to stop them even though they know its bad. But it has reduced the numbers of users and saved many lives.

I drink a single large cup of coffee in the morning I grind and brew myself and add a small amount of natural creamer for flavor and it also reduces the acidity. I can't drink it straight up. I do this for the caffeine kick and the know health benefits of the coffee. I also drink green tea brewed and cooled at least twice a day never after 5pm. This has been working for me mostly. I otherwise mostly drink water and sometimes brewed tea at restaurants.

I have tried different non-sugar energy drinks in the past and have one on rare occasions as a second caffeine/energy kick in the afternoon or after an extreme workout at gym or extra long run. After trying so many different ones and analyzing the ingredients and finding out what works best based on lots research I choose the Monster low-carb. No sugar and I like the taste when it super cold. My rule is only one of the smaller size a day max. It helps me focus and gives me a solid 5 hours of clean energy without a crash.

MODERATION is the key here as with anything! These are drugs that affect our bodies and we need to respect them and not overdo it. Take too much aspirin and you will die or mess up your digestive track for the rest of your life. Drink to much alcohol and you will die or get diabetes, blow out your liver and really screw up your body. (But a glass of red wine is good for you they say!).

It goes on and on. When we make uneducated and foolish choices we pay the consequences!

I choose to live a healthier life by making certain choices like exercising regularly, not really taking any type of medication or even pain killers unless my body really really really needs them. I avoid lots of sugars, sweets, white breads, soda and high sugar drinks. Some of my choices might seem extreme to others but to me after lots of research, trial and error they work and I am constantly tweaking them. I feel healthy, never get sick other than a rare sniffle, my average daily energy levels are most peoples highs.

Why are people so worried about these energy drinks? As long as they are taken in moderation then they are fine just like many other substances and food. We are over protecting our children from things that they need to learn about in order to have common sense later in life. If your worried your child is addicted to energy drinks it is not because the drinks are addictive, it is because addictive behavior for many different things is a common human trait. People are addicted to all sorts of things including fast food to exercise. You must teach your children about addictive behavior and to notice the signs instead of attacking the drink companies. If your child is too ignorant to know that drinking 3 energy drinks a day is bad for him then maybe you haven't done a very good job of raising him plain and simple. The war on drugs is a failure whereas education and decriminalization have proven to be effective precautions against any potentially harmful substance (for example Sweden which is doing a lot better right now when compared to countries like Canada and America). I do not wish to live in a world where the government and it's people feel the need to control the public's consumption which takes away our human right to freedom. Also I would like to point out the article mentioned seemed very biased when it points out benefits of coffee and tea but chooses to ignore any benefits energy drinks may have. So Caffeine in coffee and tea can help fight off diseases like dementia and Parkinsons but the caffeine in energy drinks doesn't????? That seems a little hard to believe seeing as how it is the same drug "caffine" in coffee and in energy drinks like "Red Bull". Drinking 3 cups of coffee a day is bad for you as well but you don't hear anyone saying we should make coffee a controlled substance. Why do people feel the need to blame companies for giving you choices when the people are the ones to blame for there own bad health. How to be healthy is common sense. Exercise, don't smoke, get plenty of sleep, eat lots of fruit and veg and don't eat lots of fatty greasy foods. If you cannot exercise self control that is your own fault! It is like an obese person suing MacDonalds for making them obese because THAT OBESE PERSON CHOOSES (OFF THERE OWN BACK) to eat at Macdonalds everyday. WAKE UP PEOPLE AND USE YOUR BRAIN FOR ONCE!

Please note - there is a big difference between food-drugs that have been around for centuries and energy drinks concocted in a laboratory. Foods contain hundreds of different substances - often more. Most have been individually unstudied.
There are estimates that Americans get half their anti-oxidants from coffee.
So to declare caffeine is the only useful substance in tea and coffee is unwarranted. We don't know what most of these different compounds do. We do know from long term epidemiologic studies that regular use of relatively low dose coffee and tea can have varied healthy effects, varying from decreasing disability in the elderly to changing rates of diabetes and Parkinsonism.
Where is the long term data for energy drinks? When that data exists, there will be points of comparison.

I drink energy drinks when I feel a bit tired and sleepy during exercise. I also drink those when I have to put an all-nighter. I know it may sound a but unhealthy but I still assure I only drink low carbs drink. Also, I never forget to have proper diet and exercise. But for you, will that maintain my health or probably make it worse slowly?